


Christmas Cards

by delighted



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Established Relationship, Family, Feels, Future Fic, Holidays, M/M, Ohana, Reunions, Timestamp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:00:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21918001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delighted/pseuds/delighted
Summary: Steve and Danny make some very special holiday plans. The family gets together in Jersey for an important event. And then—a long overdue reunion with old friends.Now with chapter two, a timestamp: very early Christmas Eve morning.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 47
Kudos: 192





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlgeriaTouchshriek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlgeriaTouchshriek/gifts).



> Well, this was a little bit of surprise that came to me in the middle of the night when I really needed it. Three hours, 3k words. Not a lot of editing and certainly not a lot of thinking too hard about the passage of time so you very likely should squint a bit while reading.... Nonetheless, happy holidays and hope you’re all warm and cozy and safe. <3
> 
> For Algeria. For putting up with way too much crap on way too little sleep. And because you didn’t ask, I did.
> 
> A special thank you to Ymas. Because it’s probably my fault you had six drafts going at once, and I’m grateful you paused long enough to read this through for me.

He hadn’t meant to fall asleep at the table. Obviously. That’s just... that’s some serious old man stuff there. And okay, he’s gotten to the point there’s more grey than blond, and he’s a bit soft around the middle—in an absolutely adorable way, Steve insists. But he likes to think of himself as still on the younger side of truly old. The fact that he’s going to be a grandfather for the third time any day now doesn’t mean any different.

He grins, as he stretches his back out, surveying the swath of Christmas cards laid out in front of him. There aren’t that many they send anymore. But that had only made him feel more obligated to include extra handwritten notes in all of them. Especially a certain few.

He’s not even sure Kono’s will find her. They’d lost track a few years back. But last he’d heard she’d seemed like maybe she was finally about to be happy, finally had exorcised a few of her ancient demons.... He’d hoped years ago that hearing from him about the wedding would have helped her, maybe somehow as though the fact that he and Steve had finally got their heads out of their asses... well maybe it would help her to feel she could come home. Chin had. Surfing his retirement away not being something Abby had been able to deny him. And it was great, truly, having him back in their lives. But, in several ways it had only made Kono’s continued absence sting more.

Still, it’s been nice, writing to her the old fashioned way. As though by stringing words together on the page he might weave a connection between them into existence. He’s probably being fantastical, but he’d almost felt he could smell her perfume as he’d been writing. Scent memory is a powerful thing after all.

He hears the creak on the stairs, knows Steve’s missed him in bed and come, endlessly patient as usual, to rouse him back to that shared warmth. Danny waits till Steve’s got one arm wrapping around him from behind then he lets himself fold softly into it, melting even after all these years, at his husband’s lightest touch.

“Hey babe,” he coos as Steve presses a kiss to the top of his head. “I just wanted to get these in the mail....”

Steve hmmms, his lips still in Danny’s hair, and now he thinks he knows the real reason Steve’s come to find him.

His eyes narrow in amusement, and he wriggles out from his place at the table and stands only to be nearly swept into Steve’s waiting embrace.

“I’ll help you with the cards in the morning Danny, if you help me with _this_ right now.”

Danny chuckles. He’d say something witty, about dirty old men, or make a comment about giving him a chance to catch up, but Steve still gets to him, still drives him mad—in all the best ways as well as several of the more actually annoying ones. So instead he kisses him. Hot and dirty, just like Steve likes. And the groan Steve lets out isn’t any less of a turn on than it had been the first time Danny’d worked out Steve really liked it when he kissed him, and liked it even more when he did it like this, all teeth and aggressive claiming.

“Some things never change, eh babe?” He asks as he pulls back with a nip to Steve’s lower lip.

“I’d put you over my shoulder right now old man, if it wouldn’t do my back in,” Steve yanks on Danny’s waistband to drag him back upstairs.

“Hey, hey, hold your horses, _old man_ ,” Danny growls, finding Kono’s card and sliding it inside the waiting envelope.

“You won’t give up, will you?” Steve asks gently, seeing the address.

Danny bites his own bottom lip in response, not wanting to give himself away, not wanting Steve to know. He’s thought about going to find her. Tracking her down and bringing her back.... He never would have done it back then of course. But there’s so much water under those bridges. Adam’s been gone for so many years now. Surely....

Steve sighs. “We’ll go together,” he says, pulling Danny closer. “After the baby comes. We’ll go find her, just be sure she knows she’s still welcome back home.” He smiles at Danny’s surprised expression. “What, you think I don’t know you’ve been thinking about it again?” Steve kisses him. Softly. Gently. But with a heat they won’t be able to deny for long. “We’ll go,” he whispers between kisses. “Chin will appreciate it. He’s not been doing so great. It’d do him good to see her. Maybe that will get her to see light.”

“You know I adore you, right?” Danny can’t help it. Steve has this way of making him dangerously fond. Steve, of course, does know it.

“Yep. It’s why you finally agreed to marry me.”

Danny laughs. It’d only taken them, what, ten years of dating? Before he’d agreed? Mostly because Steve had resorted to more and more progressively stupid ways of proposing. If Danny’d finally said yes mostly so he’d stop having heart attacks about Steve’s versions of grand romantic gestures, well, it wouldn’t have been the first time. It had taken ten years of death defying activities to get them together in the first place. Never much for the subtle, a life with Steve McGarrett.

Somehow Steve manages to get Danny back upstairs and in bed, his clothes magically vanished along the way, and oh god, it still feels electric, still feels amazing, their bodies being together like it’s simply where they belong.

They’ve always been good at this. The middle of the night sex. Steve prefers morning sex of course, and Danny late night sex. And sometimes they each manage to treat the other to his preferred version. But it’s never quite the same. Never as good as this _well we’re stupidly awake in the middle of the night, may as well make the most of it_. There’s just something about those hours. Usually between two and four. Sometimes a bit beyond. They’re sheer magic. Not unlike the orgasm Steve works from Danny, who’d nearly thought he was too tired for it. And there’s another thing about Steve McGarrett. You can think you’re not really in the mood. But a few touches from his heated skin and you’ll know you must have been stupid to think otherwise.

Danny should be used to it by now, but he’s not, and maybe that’s good. Maybe it’s part of why they’re still together, still behave at times like they’re decades younger than they are. Still act like newlyweds. Still get teased for acting like an old married couple. Chin’s favorite line for years now has been that he was right all along. He never stops smiling in that same knowing way about it.

As Danny coaxes Steve to the brink, he almost wishes they’d listened, way back then, and had ten more years of this.

So maybe that’s the thing that pushes them to it. Because the baby actually comes early, as third babies often do, and they’re there when it happens, pacing the hospital waiting room just as anxiously as they had the first two, and they hold her, sweet Matilda, and yeah Danny cries when Grace whispers her name in his ear, and he holds her tighter and promises to tell her stories of her namesake, and to make sure she always knows she’s loved.

But then they set off. Because they have a few days, only a few days before Christmas. To try and deliver one card in person. To try and perform a Christmas miracle all their own. And it’s almost fun, Danny thinks, as they drive interstates and back-ways, stop at roadside diners, stay at slightly seedy motels. There’s a nearly ethereal quality to it. And maybe it’s that new-again Grandpa glow, but Danny’s feeling oddly hopeful. And maybe that’s partly just having Steve at his side like this again. Partners to the last. Always best side by side, even before they shared a bed. But maybe there’s something else at work here too. Maybe there’s actually some deeper holiday magic, some sparkle of extra energy that helps them to it, because just when their last lead has just about gone cold... they find her. And oh god Danny really must be getting old because he starts crying at the very sight.

She’s still gorgeous. The years have barely touched her. There’s a hint of grey in her hair, but other than that she almost looks younger than when he’d last seen her. Her eyes have lost the hurt, the bitterness. A soft but deep joy has replaced them, and the smile on her lips when she sees them could light up Honolulu for days.

She actually runs to them, and Danny’s tears really do fall then. He even hears a sniff from Steve as she wraps them both so tightly in her arms, holding them as though she can barely believe they’re real.

“How’d you...?” She asks, and Steve chuckles because he knows she really does want to know.

“Sheer luck, I think,” he admits. But Danny thinks he hears, layered in Steve’s tone, he’s pretty sure it was magic as well.

She gives them a tour, of this refuge she’s created. For the girls who had no family to return to, for the ones who hadn’t wanted to. She says she mostly supervises these days. Doesn’t do any of the legwork anymore, of finding the taken ones, bringing the traffickers to justice—her own _unofficial justice_ , goes unsaid. But Danny’s not so sure. Her eyes are bright, her posture sharp, and he’d swear there’s still a callus on her trigger finger. He doesn’t point it out.

They stay for one day, catching up, before they need to head back to Jersey for the extended family celebrations. But before they go, she promises she’ll come visit. An after Christmas miracle. He hopes she means it.

“Hey,” she says, catching either his worried look, or Steve’s reflection of it. “I’ll be there. New Year’s Eve, Steve’s— _your_ place. Just get my cousin there. And don’t tell him. Let me...” she swallows roughly, her face turns sad. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” she says, finding Danny’s ring with her fingers, and twirling it. “For the hard parts, too.” He kisses her on the cheek, kind of doesn’t want to let her go.

“Just be there for Chin now,” he whispers. “It’ll mean the world to him.”

She looks deeply in his eyes. He sees tears start to form, wipes them as they fall. She nods, unable to say more. Steve kisses her other cheek, holds them both for a bit, and Danny feels something he hadn’t even known was still off-balance, just click back into place.

The holiday itself passes joyfully, in a little bubble of family bliss. Matilda is passed around, her older siblings alternate between looking awed and slightly suspicious. Danny watches Steve glow in the presence of his adopted family. Beaming with pride just as much as if Grace really had been his. And it’s all complicated, of course it is. There’s too many tangles of the past, too many threads that never quite got tidied away. But they only add to the magic, enhance the sparkle. And yeah, he doesn’t love seeing Rachel, on the arm of some pretty new thing who no doubt makes Danny’s entire pension in one month. But he knows the grandkids will be well provided for, and maybe he’s just old, but it doesn’t bother him like it used to.

Steve’s fingers tangle with his under the dining table as Grace’s husband thanks them all for coming. And in the noisy chaos that follows Charlie’s less sedate toast, he lets Steve anchor him. Just like he always has. Bringing him into focus, here, now... not drifting off to the past and hurt and regret, or onwards to a future they can’t yet know. And he lets it all wash over him, just that sort of golden glow of candles and holiday lights and the heat from the oven that’s been going all day long, to cover the table with this much bounty, this much nourishment. It’s the connections between them all that feed him far better than the turkey or the ham or the ambrosia ever will.

“Thanks, dads,” Grace says to them, as they part at the bottom of the stairs that night. “Thank you for everything. We’ll bring the kids to visit this summer.” She kisses Steve on the cheek. “You can teach Jack to surf.”

That it means more to Steve than he’d ever admit, Danny knows. He sees in her eyes, Grace does too.

They sleep well that night, indulging silently in Danny’s favored nighttime sex, and, remarkably, also Steve’s preferred morning sex, and maybe they're not so old after all. Or maybe it’s just the holidays have somehow got a little extra magic this year.

Danny goes a little overboard with the New Year’s Eve menu. But then Steve’s gone completely over the top with the decorations. Danny thinks Steve will be very much in his element when the grandkids are old enough to come stay on their own and he can decorate his and Mary’s old rooms for them. When his husband developed such a taste for the ostentatious Danny’s not certain, but he doesn’t complain as a Steve bedecked in sparkly silver garland seems to do things for him (or more to the point, _to_ Danny).

Junior and Tani even promised to come tonight, their kids being old enough to be left alone for the evening, with a small but probably not very sedate group of friends.

Lou’s in Chicago for the New Year. With Samantha’s family, Will and his partner, and a whole host of extended family chaos Danny knows he’ll need an entire six pack of Longboards to make it through listening to Lou gripe endlessly about.

But it’s Chin’s presence that Danny’s most focused on. He’d been injured pretty badly on the job a few years before his retirement back on the island. And he’s developed a slight limp lately, which has Abby worried, because, as she’d confessed to Danny, there’s no medical reason for it. He’s pretty sure Chin misses his girls. Sara’s off globetrotting with her girlfriend, but they’ll both visit for a month later in the New Year, and Danny knows Chin looks forward to that. But it’s Kono his heart truly misses. Danny’s never doubted that. He’s pretty sure Abby knows it better than anyone.

So he’s actually quite pleased, Danny is, when Chin seems more sprightly and glowing as he helps Danny in the kitchen while Steve and Junior argue over the placement of the—yes—disco ball. Tani ignores them and focuses on the music, while Abby fusses with the lighting.

“Did you and Steve have a good trip out east?” Chin asks, sneaking a taste of the spicy guava jam Danny’s made to go with the cheese and meat platter. “Ohh that’s good,” he says, licking his finger.

Danny’s already shown him fourteen hundred photos of the baby, but he launches into far more detail than anyone needs to know about the latest sounds she’s making. And how he can’t wait to hold her again. Chin grins indulgently, but slightly amused, and Danny soon figures out he’s got news he hadn’t spilled yet.

It doesn’t take much prodding from Danny before Chin breaks. “Sara called on Christmas Day. She and Jenny are adopting. That’s part of what this trip has been. They just didn’t want to tell us till they were sure it would go through, but they got the papers Christmas Eve. I’m gonna be a grandpa, Danny.”

His eyes are twinkling, it’s almost the same old spark Danny misses. But there's a sharp hint of sorrow underneath. Danny watches as Chin tries to suppress it. And fails. He wipes his eyes and chuckles. “Silly I know, I just wish I could tell Kono.”

“Tell Kono what?”

And Danny hadn’t been looking, hadn’t wanted to seem as though he was expecting something. But he looks now, as Kono slots herself into the shocked embrace of her cousin, winks at Danny, and he slides out of the kitchen to give them some privacy.

He’s curled up on the arm of Steve’s recliner, leaning into the warmth between them, gazing with fondness as Junior sits with his feet in Tani’s lap, all of them listening with rapt attention as Steve recounts their search for Kono.

“God what a romantic adventure,” Tani marvels when he’s done. “I’m excited to finally meet her!”

Abby’s got tears in her eyes, and Danny leans in to congratulate her on the adoption. He’s pretty sure from the guilty look she gives him, she’s been doing probably more baby clothes shopping than she’s let on to Chin. “Yeah we kind of can’t wait, but this.... Oh, Danny. Thank you. I’d told him for years he should go find her. I even tried once. But he said it was her choice to make. I’m glad you guys made it for her. Well. Pushed, anyway. I’m just glad she’s here.”

They all look up as the cousins enter the room, arms so tightly around each other still, and maybe there’s sorrow there, regret, some lingering pain, but it doesn’t look like it. It looks like they’re just the same as they always were, and even though it’s so not true, it warms Danny’s heart just the same.

“What’re you all looking at?” Kono chides, and she hands them each a stack of envelopes. “Cards,” she explains. “For all the ones I missed.”

“You coulda mailed them you know,” Abby says, as she hugs Kono. “But I’m much happier to get them in person.”

Chin and Junior get the music going, and Steve turns on the completely not at all obnoxious disco ball.

“You don’t know how to do things half way, do you?” Danny asks as he watches their living room transform into a glittering den of dance.

Steve looks at him with a grin, looks over to where Tani and Kono have fallen, instantly, into easy, animated conversation. Looks back to Danny with his heart completely in his eyes. Just as it’s always been.

“Now where’s the fun in that?”

And just as Danny starts to protest, Steve kisses him, and maybe it’s years late, but he loves it maybe all the more for it, because Kono’s wolf-whistle pierces through the music, and it makes them both laugh.

“About damn time,” he whispers. “About damn time.”


	2. Timestamp: early Christmas Eve morning, Steve and Grace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is just a quick little timestamp I wrote for Algeria last year, after I posted the original story. It's short and it's sweet and I'm really quite fond of it, so I'm posting it as a little holiday treat.
> 
> I have a whole set of timestamps for my [Hometown Holiday AU](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19131547/chapters/67855742) coming soon, so if you’re craving more holiday family fluff, keep an eye out for that (it’ll be the next chapter there). 
> 
> I've put a few links to some of my other holiday stories in the End Notes, in case you want more holiday reading in the meantime.
> 
> Happy holidays, everyone. <3

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” 

He says it softly, doesn’t want to startle Grace, but he’s amused by the fact they’ve both wound up down here in the kitchen at “zero dark thirty” as she always called it. Those early days of his marriage to Danny, when they’d spent rather a lot of time in Jersey. In this house. 

It’s her house now, her’s and Justin’s. Gifted them by Danny’s folks back when they’d made that move to Florida (as all old people in Jersey are required by law to do). And he’s glad, glad these four walls and all they’ve seen remain within the family. It’d be a shame, Steve thinks, for them to belong to anyone else. Someone who wouldn’t know, wouldn’t appreciate the precious memories that dwell here.

She smiles warmly at him, closes in for a hug. She’s still swollen and sore from the baby, and she looks exhausted. Steve wants to take some of that from her, wishes he could, and when she sinks kind of unwittingly in his arms, he steers her away from the coffee machine to the little built in bench and table. 

“You sit, I’ll make the coffee.”

She sighs, grateful, exhausted, but also (and he knows the sound from Danny), fond and warm and contented. All three of the Williams family he loves so well are delightfully easy to please. Fill their cup in whatever literal or figurative way—a hug, a coffee, a well-timed glass of wine at the end of a long day—and they will put you on the tallest of pedestals. Follow you with unending devotion till the last of your days. 

Steve used to panic about it. Wake literally in the depths of the night in an absolute panic. Fear that Danny would leave him, find him woefully inadequate and not at all up to the task of loving him the rest of their lives, drenching him in actual sweat. It had taken more years than Steve would care to recount, before he’d willingly let go of that fear. It still amazes him, though. The sheer strength of Danny’s love for him. Trust in him. Devotion to him. He’s said “I don’t know what I did to deserve you” far more than sixty seven times, and he’ll say it hopefully hundreds more. 

It’s true of Grace as well. She’d welcomed him so enthusiastically into their family, always made him feel as though he belonged, utterly, perfectly, completely belonged…. He wants to make good on it. He always does, but watching her now, drifting sweetly in the dimly lit kitchen, at way too early in the morning, he wants to do whatever he can to deserve the love she’s given him.

“Oh you’re an angel,” she coos as he sets a steaming mug before her, topped up with her preferred vanilla creamer.

“You sure you should be drinking that?” He asks gently, sipping from his own mug—his mug, with the wide swath of camo, the block print “Uncle Steve,” it’d been a gift from Charlie so many moons ago, before both kids had decided “Uncle” wasn’t enough and started calling Steve “dad,” long before Danny’d agreed to call him “husband.” He still gets shivers when he gets called either one… and “grandpa,” well that’s a whole other term he’ll never fully be used to hearing aimed at him. At least he no longer tears up when it happens, but it’s a damn close thing sometimes. 

“I won’t drink the whole cup,” Grace says sleepily, leaning against Steve. “But it’s nice to remember the taste, nice to remember the ritual… I’ll fall back asleep even if I drink the whole pot, I just wanted a moment to savor all this, before the chaos of the next two days descends.”

“Do you want me to—” he’s about to offer to leave her alone, but she links her arm in his and pulls him closer.

“Don’t you dare.” 

They laugh sweetly, softly, sleepily, and they sit till they’ve both finished their coffees, and there will be brighter, louder, more obviously jubilant scenes this Christmas holiday, but none, Steve thinks, none will stay as close to his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since that was short, if it leaves you wanting more, you can of course filter my works for the "Holidays" tag. Or here's a selection:
> 
> If you want more Family Holiday Fluff, [here's a 6k coda](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13459659) to the episode where Steve shows up at Danny's house on Christmas Eve. 
> 
> Or if you prefer some _ahem_ Adult Holiday Fun, [here's 13k where](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17092352) Steve throws an over the top party pretty much just to get Danny in his bed.
> 
> If "Short and Sweet" is your preferred cup, there are four Holiday one-shots in By Your Side and The Best Medicine: 
> 
> There's [a flirty one](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5374970/chapters/29944143) where Steve gets sick on Christmas and Danny takes care of him. Or [a sweet one](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5560741/chapters/30232137) where Christmas gets ruined by a case, so Steve has Danny and the kids over for New Year's. Or there's [a steamy one](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5560741/chapters/39832938) where Danny craves lots of Christmas themed drinks and Steve obliges. And there's [a sassy one](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5560741/chapters/40370027) where Danny is super grumpy on Christmas and of course Steve makes it better.
> 
> Hope there's something in there to give you some warm holiday feels..... Stay safe and cozy! <3


End file.
